PURPOSE: to align the data protection rules in Decision 2002/465/JHA with the principles and rules of the Data Protection Law Enforcement Directive in order to establish a strong and coherent data protection framework in the EU.
PROPOSED ACT: Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.
BACKGROUND: Directive (EU) 2016/680 (data protection law enforcement Directive) required the Commission to review, by 6 May 2019 at the latest, other legal acts adopted by the EU which regulate the processing of personal data by competent authorities for law enforcement purposes, in order to assess the need to bring them into line with the Directive and to make, if appropriate, the necessary proposals to amend those acts to ensure a consistent approach to the protection of personal data under the Directive.
The Commission set out the results of its review in a Communication of 24 June 2020 which identifies ten legal acts that should be aligned with the Directive and sets out a timetable for doing so. The list includes Council Framework Decision 2002/465/JHA on joint investigation teams.
The Commission has indicated that it will present targeted amendments to this Decision in the last quarter of 2020; this is the purpose of this proposal.
CONTENT: in the interests of consistency and effective protection of personal data, the Commission proposes that the processing of personal data carried out under Framework Decision 2002/465/JHA should comply with the rules set out in Directive (EU) 2016/680.
In particular, the proposal for a Directive amends the Framework Decision by aligning the cases of use of personal data collected by joint investigation teams with the purpose limitation principle as regulated by the Data Protection Directive in the field of law enforcement.